By the time they took a cab to the hospital, Chu Luyu had been in a state of lingering fear so intense that she was almost speechless the entire way.
But she didn’t want Jiang Hezhou to notice anything unusual, so she forcibly suppressed the turmoil churning inside her and managed to act relatively normal throughout the ride, accompanying him to the hospital.
The emergency room at the nearby hospital was chaotic that night—they had taken in two groups of people from a brawl, plus a couple whose argument had escalated to knife violence. Each party had brought along a crowd of family members, leaving the entire ER in a noisy mess.
After a nurse learned about their situation, she helped them register. The doctor asked a few brief questions, then directly gave Jiang Hezhou a referral slip and told him to go get an X-ray first.
There weren’t many people waiting for X-rays, so they didn’t have to queue when they arrived. The hard part was the twenty-plus-minute wait for the results afterward.
Whether it was because the hospital lights were too bright or because he was in pain, Jiang Hezhou’s face looked abnormally pale at that moment, and his grip on her wrist was tighter than usual.
“Does it hurt a lot?” Chu Luyu’s heart ached for him right then, because she knew all too well that his injury was actually suffered in her place. If he hadn’t pushed her out of harm’s way without a second thought, she would now either be in the ICU or the morgue.
Hearing her question, Jiang Hezhou just shook his head silently.
Chu Luyu didn’t believe him. “You’re lying. Your face is pale, and you’re holding onto me so tightly—it must be because the pain is unbearable.”
Jiang Hezhou was quiet for a long moment. His grip on her hand remained firm, but his voice was calm when he spoke: “It does hurt, sure, but not so much that I need to exert extreme restraint. The reason I’m holding you so tightly is simply because I’m afraid you might suddenly run away.”
His words left Chu Luyu momentarily speechless. But then she thought back to the conversation they’d had before the accident, and suddenly his reaction didn’t seem so unreasonable…
When the X-ray came out, the doctor hung it up against the viewing light, took a look, and said: “The big toe and second toe are fractured—”
Before the doctor could even finish his sentence, Chu Luyu cut in anxiously: “Is that very serious? Does he need to be hospitalized?”
“No.” Before the doctor could respond, Jiang Hezhou interjected firmly, “No need for hospitalization.”
Chu Luyu was already feeling heavy-hearted because of that inexplicable falling flowerpot. Hearing Jiang Hezhou’s dismissive attitude now, it was as if all the negative emotions she’d been bottling up suddenly ignited.
“Jiang Hezhou, you have fractures! Didn’t you see those two cracks on your bone? Why are you being so stubborn at a time like this!” Her voice carried a rare note of anger, and her pretty face was etched with seriousness.
Jiang Hezhou was slightly taken aback, but his expression remained calm—far more composed than hers. “I’m not being stubborn. It’s just a fracture. Whether you recover at home or in the hospital, it’s the same either way.”
“How can it be the same! You—”
“Hey, hey, hey!” The doctor couldn’t take it anymore and called out helplessly. “You two young folks, stop arguing! I haven’t even said everything I need to say, and you’re already going at each other!”
He then glanced at Chu Luyu. “I know you’re worried about your boyfriend, but what he said isn’t wrong. A fracture really just requires rest. Whether you stay in the hospital or not doesn’t make much difference. In a moment, I’ll prescribe two injections to reduce swelling and relieve pain, and then put on a splint. After the injections, you can just take him home to recover. Make sure he doesn’t put any weight on that foot for a month. Come back for a follow-up when the time comes, and I’ll check on the healing progress then.”
Hearing the doctor’s words, Chu Luyu took a deep breath and ultimately didn’t insist any further.
Later, as she helped Jiang Hezhou to get his injections, her expression remained grim. He tilted his head to look at her from the side, seeming a bit helpless.
“I’m the one who got hurt, so why are you the one who’s angry now?”
“I’m not angry. Why would I be angry? Like you said, you’re the one who got hurt, not me. What reason do I have to be angry?”
It was clearly a sulky retort.
Jiang Hezhou stopped walking and stood still.
“If something’s bothering you, you need to tell me. Otherwise, I won’t know how to cheer you up.”
Chu Luyu could feel his gaze pressing down on her, but she didn’t look up. She just stood beside him with her eyes lowered.
“I just hate how irresponsible you are toward yourself. Before the doctor even finished speaking, you were so adamant about not staying in the hospital. But what if today’s accident had been more serious and you really did need to be hospitalized?”
She couldn’t quite pinpoint the source of her emotions at that moment—maybe it was because of Jiang Hezhou’s attitude earlier, or maybe it was because the fear that had been building up inside her since the accident had finally reached its breaking point.
When she spoke again, her voice even carried a hint of tears: “Our lives are precious, Jiang Hezhou. Our lives are precious…”
Jiang Hezhou had never expected such a small matter to cause her emotions to unravel like this.
The corridor outside the consultation room was empty, with just the two of them. Silently, he pulled the girl into his arms and let her cry and vent.
Only when the sobs in his arms gradually subsided did he gently turn her around by the shoulders, wiped her tears, and asked: “Baby, were you scared by what just happened?”
She was scared… but Chu Luyu couldn’t tell him the real reason. After a moment’s hesitation, she simply nodded. “Yeah.”
“It’s okay. That was just an accident. And with that kind of falling object from a height, the fact that I only got hurt on my foot is already a blessing in disguise. You don’t need to worry about anything.”
Chu Luyu kept her head down, her eyes cast low, her damp lashes veiling all the emotions beneath them.
Jiang Hezhou didn’t know what she was thinking. He waited quietly for a moment, then suddenly heard her say: “But that flowerpot just now—it was originally going to hit me.”
Jiang Hezhou frowned. “We were standing so close together at that moment—why would you think it was aimed at you? Don’t tell me you feel like you’re the reason I got hurt.”
Chu Luyu didn’t speak. She just lifted her tear-streaked eyes to look at him, and the meaning in her expression was unmistakable.
Jiang Hezhou found her line of thinking very strange, but he still carefully recalled the situation at the time, trying to reassure her.
“When that flowerpot fell, we were standing right next to each other. I pushed you away out of a strong, instinctive urge to protect the person I love—that was my subconscious choice, and it had nothing to do with you. I don’t really understand why you’re blaming yourself, but if something like that happened again, I think I’d still make the same choice I did today.”
Chu Luyu felt a heavy tightness in her chest. She knew they were completely talking past each other. After a moment’s thought, she took a deep breath and said, “Never mind. Let me take you to get your injection first.”
The IV infusion area was on the second floor. When they went over with their paperwork, a nurse soon arrived with a treatment cart.
The silver needle gleamed coldly under the light. Chu Luyu had always been terrified of injections—even watching others get them made her uneasy. Now, seeing the needle, she averted her gaze nervously.
After the nurse finished the IV and was about to leave with the cart, she gave them a couple of instructions: “You should get him a hot water bottle later. The weather’s cold, and these two IV bags will take about an hour and a half to finish. His arm will definitely get cold.”
Chu Luyu nodded quickly. Once seated, she immediately pulled out her phone to order a hot water bottle for delivery.
Jiang Hezhou actually wanted to stop her—to say that he didn’t mind the cold—but then he remembered how her emotions had suddenly unraveled earlier because of something he’d said, so he held back and stayed quiet.
The delivery rider arrived quickly. Chu Luyu stood up, unwrapped the hot water bottle, and was about to head to the water room to fill it with hot water.
But the moment she turned around, her wrist was suddenly grabbed from behind.
She looked back and met Jiang Hezhou’s deep, dark eyes.
“You’ll be right back, won’t you?” His voice sounded relatively calm, but his large hand gripped her with tremendous force.
Chu Luyu sighed inwardly. She shook the bracelet on her wrist and said, “With this on, where could I possibly go?”
Jiang Hezhou stared at her deeply for a long moment, and finally let go.
The water room on the second floor was locked, so Chu Luyu went up one more flight to the third floor.
The system had been silent ever since the flowerpot fell. As Chu Luyu walked toward the water room, she glanced at it, and her mood grew heavier again.
Chu Luyu: [Cuihua, are you also thinking about that flowerpot just now?]
System Cuihua: [Big baby… that was a plot kill.]
After a pause, as if making up its mind, it added: [Why don’t you take this chance to run away! If you leave now, even if the plotline of this world really does collapse later, maybe as long as you stay away from the male lead, nothing else will happen to you?]
Chu Luyu’s footsteps faltered. She didn’t know what she was thinking, and her smile was strained as she replied: [I want to run too, but the bracelet the male lead put on me is like a tight band—wherever I go, he’ll find me.]
The system was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice: [You know that opening that bracelet is a simple thing I can do.]
Before Chu Luyu could even react, she heard a tiny click from her wrist. Looking down, the lock on the bracelet had been completely opened—
…
After Chu Luyu left, Jiang Hezhou immediately took out his phone and opened the tracking app. He stared at the screen without missing a second, watching the red marker move around the hospital, occasionally pausing and then moving again.
The anxiety that had been rising in his chest gradually settled. When he saw that she had stopped completely at the water room on the third floor, he let out a full sigh of relief.
But as the minutes ticked by—about ten minutes or so—Chu Luyu still hadn’t returned. At first, Jiang Hezhou didn’t think much of it, but the longer it went on, the more he felt something was wrong.
He reopened the tracking app. When he saw that the red marker was still at the third-floor water room, he seemed to realize something all at once, and shot to his feet.
The IV needle still in his hand was ripped out in an instant. In his haste and roughness, a streak of bright red immediately welled up on the back of his hand. Jiang Hezhou didn’t even glance at it. He didn’t even mind the injury on his toes—he hurriedly strode toward the third floor as if nothing was wrong.
Every step he took was painful. Climbing the stairs, cold sweat beaded at his temples, but he paid it no mind—his only thought was to rush upward.
He didn’t dare to dwell on the faint suspicion creeping up in his heart.
No, it can’t be. No, it can’t be. He kept repeating these three words to himself over and over.
But when he finally made it to the third-floor water room, enduring the searing pain, his face pale as death, the sight before him dashed his hopes—
On top of the water heater sat a filled hot water bottle, and beside it lay a silver bracelet, quietly resting. It looked almost identical to the one on his own wrist, except it was two sizes smaller in circumference.
Jiang Hezhou’s face was now as white as paper, carrying an air of extreme morbidity. He stood there silently, his body stiff as a pine tree that had weathered countless sandstorms.
So that’s how it was?
So it was the same yet again?
So no matter what he did, what he said, how he acted, how he spoke… he could never keep her!
The wound on the back of his hand, left untreated, had now let blood spread inch by inch from his hand down to his fingertips.
The crimson dripped from his pale fingertips to the floor—one drop, two drops—and soon, the small patch of ground beneath him was dotted with tiny red blossoms of blood.
Jiang Hezhou composed himself almost instantly. He pulled out his phone, about to make a call, when suddenly a soft voice came from behind him: “What are you doing?”
Startled, he turned around. There was the girl, coming from the direction of the restroom, shaking the water off her hands as she walked toward him.
Her gaze swept over him casually and immediately caught sight of the wound on his hand.
Chu Luyu sighed, looking rather exasperated as she looked at him. “Why are you hurting yourself like this?”
Jiang Hezhou didn’t respond to her words. He closed the distance in two or three strides, reached out, grabbed her fiercely, and pulled her into his arms.
He held her so tightly, his arm wrapped around her back, that it felt like he might snap her in two.
Chu Luyu felt the dull ache but endured it without a sound.
After a moment, the man’s low, muffled voice sounded by her ear: “Where did you go? I couldn’t find you just now… I couldn’t find you.”
For some reason, hearing those words made tears stream down Chu Luyu’s face in an instant.
The man kept talking, his voice unsteady: “How did you take off that bracelet? Didn’t you say you didn’t know how to open it? How did you get it off…”
Chu Luyu took a deep breath and gently pushed him. “Let go of me first.”
He released her, but as soon as he straightened up, his hand clamped tightly around her wrist again.
Chu Luyu didn’t mind. She led him back into the water room and picked up the bracelet from the water heater.
The heat from the heater had warmed the bracelet considerably. After letting it cool for a few seconds, Chu Luyu held it out to Jiang Hezhou.
“Put it back on for me.”
Jiang Hezhou didn’t move. His eyes behind his glasses gazed at her deeply. Chu Luyu waited a moment, lost patience, and took the initiative to take his hand, placing the bracelet into his palm.
The bracelet still carried a warm sensation. Jiang Hezhou felt as though the weight in his palm had settled onto his heart. He still didn’t move, but the girl kept holding his hand, guiding his movements, forcing him to fasten the bracelet back onto her wrist.
“Jiang Hezhou, do you see? I can open this bracelet. But right now, I’m choosing to let you put it back on for me. You should understand what that means, right?”
A deep, bitter ache swelled in Jiang Hezhou’s chest. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, and he stood there, utterly still, staring at her.
The look that passed between them seemed to speak a thousand unspoken words.
In her mind, Chu Luyu replayed the conversation she’d just had with the system—
System Cuihua: [Baby, maybe the chance I can give you is only this one. Are you sure you want to give it up?]
Chu Luyu: [Cuihua, ever since I came to this world, I’ve been getting close to Jiang Hezhou only to leave him. But time and time again, no matter what it costs him, he still tries to hold on to me. I was really scared today too—I’m terrified of dying. But when I think about how he might become sick again after I disappear, how he might turn into that abnormal person again… just thinking about it makes me so sad.]
The system was silent for a long time before replying: [Baby, you can afford to be a little more selfish.]
Chu Luyu: [The choice I’m making is exactly a selfish one. I don’t want to put myself through more pain and suffering, so I choose to stay by his side… until the day I can no longer stay.]
With that thought, Chu Luyu took Jiang Hezhou’s hand again, her small palm wrapping around half of his. Her eyes were red as she looked up at him.
“Jiang Hezhou, how about we go home?”
Jiang Hezhou felt a dampness spreading through his chest. He looked at her like that, and when he spoke again, his voice was hoarse beyond recognition: “Okay. Let’s go home.”
Leave a Reply